Before I read the other comments, having just read your article, I'd like to say, wow... thank you for a very, very nice article.. and the chart... quite a talent! :) Then, also, congratulations on becoming a father :) (Wishing you lots of patience). Having 2 little daughters myself I can only agree with all of what you have nicely written in this post... Kids are little monsters :)

Our son was born March 12th, 2009. He's a little over two and a half years old. Now, I am the wussiest wuss to ever wuss up the joint, so take everything I'm about to say with a grain of salt – but choosing to become a parent is the hardest thing I have ever done. By far. Everything else pales ...

@Mark Sicignano: That's what just happened with me on StackOverflow just a few days ago, for a very similar reason - I asked what if the development machine is much faster than my "production" environment (our web servers) - how can I 'simulate' a slower environment.. (that was in the frame of choosing a new computer, assembled from various parts, based on almost a 3 week-long research..) so I got -4 votes in the first 15 minutes after posting this question, without any constructive comments to complement such a cruel/predatory behavior. So I had to erase my question as soon as I could before my 'reputation' would go to -200 for just asking a reasonable question... So, exactly, the research itself is pretty frustrating - especially for a busy developer that has to deliver results to his clients...

I've had more or less the same PC, with various updates, since 2007. I've written about most of it here: Building a PC, Part I: Minimal boot Building a PC, Part II: Burn in Building a PC, Part III: Overclocking Building a PC, Part IV: Now It's Your Turn Building a PC, Part V: Upgrading B...

Thanks for sharing this pretty useful information. I noticed that you've added a powerful PSU. I would like to share my finding - I'm also building a new system with the goal of using possibly the most high-techy things available today. One of my desires is to build a completely quiet system. With no moving parts whatsoever, if possible. So I bumped onto these "passive-cooling" PSU's, the most powerful of them is at 500W - has just appeared on market and is not even available for purchase in Europe. So I chose one that I could get in here (http://www.techaddicts.net/reviews/zen400/zen400.html). I was afraid that with my setup of a Core I7 Extreme CPU, 24 gigs or RAM, 2 PCI-e SSD's and a 4Gb Video card, I won't have enough power from that PSU.. So, last night I was walking around in Tesco, and I found a Watt electricity usage monitor socket, like this (http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1316810429&sr=1-1) - I plugged it into my socket from where all goes into the comp. and the result (power consumption) was roughly 225W at peak (190W on average) and 22W lowest - that is including a UPS, a Dual Core with 4 SATA drives, and a 27" LED monitor... So this socket could be a useful thing for measuring power consumption :) - It could also tell you how much you would pay for the electricity... (I'm not playing games on my computer though)

I've had more or less the same PC, with various updates, since 2007. I've written about most of it here: Building a PC, Part I: Minimal boot Building a PC, Part II: Burn in Building a PC, Part III: Overclocking Building a PC, Part IV: Now It's Your Turn Building a PC, Part V: Upgrading B...